Reader Responses, August 10, 2014

Published on Saturday, 9 August 2014 21:26 - Written by

FEDERAL ‘THOUGHT POLICE’ ARE OUT IN FORCE THESE DAYS

I read with great interest your recent editorial regarding “Tolerance.” It reminded me of Orson Welles’ book “1984.” Your comment that “the federal government is setting itself up to enforce the will of the ‘New Majority’” recalls the new language that Welles labeled “newspeak.”

The central theme of the book is the fictional government’s effort not to tolerate any original thinking or express any thought that doesn’t meet the approval of the “powers that be.” In the book, any thought contrary to the “mainstream” is considered a “thoughtcrime.” Our “rulers” in Washington D.C., particularly the Supreme Court, are rapidly advancing toward this agenda, as they declare that virtually any radical social issue such as “same-sex marriage” must be acceptable and a state cannot forbid it. This is happening, despite the fact that Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist Paper #31 that: “The state governments, by their original Constitutions are invested with complete sovereignty.”

Hamilton was attempting to persuade the people of New York to ratify the proposed Constitution. The liberal wing of the court uses the “Papers” when it meets their biases but ignores them when it does not.

Thomas Jefferson warned that, “The Constitution... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”

He was right on point, and it appears that Welles was also, as we are rapidly entering the “Twilight Zone” of a “Brave New World!” The “Thought-Police” are out in force.

David E. Pierson

Tyler

CHRISTIANS ATTACKED

Christians worldwide are under attack. Muslim terrorists and Muslim nations are killing Christians, and burning churches. In the United States, Christians are being attacked, as atheist and left-wing liberals continue to express their disdain for religion.

The IRS is working to strike a deal with an atheist group to churches.

I personally am tired of turning the other cheek. When will the Christian world take a stand?

France is a country with a large Muslim population.

The streets of Paris are filled with mobs attacking Jews and Christians. European nations are once again standing back watching attacks on Jews and Christians, like they did under Hitler’s rule.

America is once again being silent and Washington continues to deal with and send foreign aid dollars to countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which will not let Bibles into their countries.

John Cole

Flint

CLIMATE CHANGE

Regarding your July 31 editorial, “Climate Alarmism leads to Sharknado,” includes ridiculous examples culled of the effects of climate change and refers to the “climate change crowd” the “climate change folks” and finally conflates the “crowd” and the “folks” with the “left.” Since your piece fails to name any of the subjects of your Luddite scorn, it’s important, I think, to identify some of these benighted lefties who affirm that climate change, and drastic climate change at that, is taking place before our eyes at an accelerating pace.

They include: the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Chemical Society; the American Geophysical Union; the American Medical Association; NASA; the American Geological Society; the American Physical Society; the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the U.S. National Academy of Science. Each of these organizations endorse the International Panel on Climate Change’s recent report on the causes and effects of global warming. You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions, significantly caused by the human use of fossil fuels, is causing an increase in world temperatures.

In addition to the “folks” I identified, there are more than 200 worldwide organizations that affirm the basic scientific facts about global warming. It’s sad that right wing publications like your own continue to deride the scientific consensus about this situation. It reinforces the regrettable, but not wholly misplaced, opinion that conservatives are willfully ignorant, anti-science know-nothings.